The present invention comprises a new and distinct cultivar of grapevine botanically known as Vitis vinifera and hereinafter referred to as grapevine named ‘SV21-61-373’. As used herein, ‘grapevine’ refers to all plant parts including, vines, canes, tendrils, leaves, fruit and roots of ‘SV21-61-373’. Grapevine named ‘SV21-61-373’ is the result of an effort to produce a late ripening, green, seedless table grape with fruit characteristics superior to currently available green grape cultivar ‘Thompson Seedless’ (unpatented) and ‘Autumn King’ (U.S. Plant Pat. No. 16,284). This new cultivar originated from a cross conducted in May 2000 near McFarland, Calif. between pistillate grapevine plant selection ‘13-2-138’ (unpatented) and pollen parent ‘SV9-9-12’ (unpatented). Resultant ovules from the cross were harvested 42 days after pollination and cultured on agar substrate containing ‘McCown's Woody Plant Medium’. Embryonic plants were dissected from those cultured ovules after twelve weeks and were transferred to culture tubes containing the same medium in the laboratory under twelve hours of light from standard fluorescent lamps at 27° C. The seedlings from this effort were transplanted to the greenhouse in November of 2000 and grown in the greenhouse at 29° C. with 12 hours illumination under high pressure sodium vapor lamps. The seedling population of 496 plants was planted in the field in the spring of 2002 near Delano, Calif. The new grapevine was selected from this seedling population on Sep. 19, 2005. It was then propagated by cuttings and grafted to ‘Freedom’ (unpatented) rootstock in 2006. The present invention has been found to retain its distinctive characteristics through four successive asexual propagations.
Grapevine named ‘SV21-61-373’ differs from the female parent grapevine ‘SV13-2-138’ (unpatented) in that ‘SV21-61-373’ has ovate shaped, seedless berries and flowers with functional pollen, whereas ‘SV13-2-138’ has spherical shaped berries with partially lignified seed traces and flowers that are pistillate (functionally female).
Grapevine named ‘SV21-61-373’ differs from its male parent, ‘SV9-9-12’ (unpatented) in that ‘SV21-61-373’ has ovate shaped, bright green berries that do not brown internally while in cold storage, whereas ‘SV9-9-12’ has oblong shaped, green berries.
Grapevine named ‘SV21-61-373’ differs from the commercial cultivar ‘Thompson Seedless’ in that ‘SV21-61-373’ has ovate shaped, bright green berries, whereas ‘Thompson Seedless’ has elongate shaped, light green berries. The berries of ‘SV21-61-373’ have a superior eating quality and larger berries at harvest after standard vineyard practices of application of exogenous gibberellic acid and girdling of the vine trunks as compared to ‘Thompson Seedless’. Additionally, ‘SV21-61-373’ has fruitful shoots with spur pruning to two buds, whereas ‘Thompson Seedless’ lacks fruitfulness with spur pruning.